Say it with flowers
by smaragdbird
Summary: Lorne tries to express his feelings for Parrish through flowers, literally, but of course the universe hates him LorneParrish slash


Say it with flowers

Lorne was going to kill his sister. And Reed. And Miko Kusanagi. Maybe he could herd them into a jumper and leave them on a Wraith planet. They certainly deserved it. All of them. And possibly Cadman and Radek too for giving him sympathetic looks.

It's probably the best to begin at the start.

Major Evan Lorne was quite attracted to his teammate Dr. David Parrish from the Botany department. To be honest he was in love with him.

Of course, that was against regulations so he had made peace with the fact that he would never be more than Parrish's teammate and friend. Until he had been kidnapped by the Genii. Something like that could really change your perspective on things and after he had come back, he had decided to take Radek's advice and go for it since no one on Atlantis would care.

So far so good.

Lorne had wanted to be a original to ask David out. And since David worked with plants, Evan had asked his sister to send him a list with the meaning of flowers. Thanks to the Ancients most flowers from Earth could be found on the mainland, too. He had left the flowers on David's desk before he went to join his team for dinner what he usually did. His plan was to come back with David afterwards and ask him out, through the flower so to speak.

The universe or at least this galaxy had to hate him. He got delayed by a malfunctioning transporter and by the time he reached the floor of the mess, he met his team, who were just leaving together with Miko and Radek.

'Hey, sir!' Cadman called and waved him over: 'We're showing Radek and Miko David's musical plant. Want to join us?'

On p4-M643 they had found a carnivorous plant that, when it became hungry, began to move and while making sounds to attract its prey. That had been two days ago and the plant was already famous. Something to show off with when the Daedalus came back.

'Sure, why not?'

It meant he wasn't alone with him when David found the flowers but he could always ask him later. How probable was it that someone else in their little group would know the 'language of flowers'?

He had, however, not taken into consideration that this was Atlantis where you never relied on odds because the Universe would go out of its way and if needed ask a few parallel ones for help just to prove you wrong.

'Nice flowers, Dave.' Cadman said as soon as she entered the lab. Evan could see David blush and stutter:

'They…they weren't there before.'

'Maybe you have a secret admirer.' She laughed but looked knowingly at Evan.

Damn, had he been that obvious?

'Is there a card?' Reed asked. David looked through the flowers and shook his head:

'No, no card.'

'Maybe the message is the flowers itself.' Reed said and earned curious looks from all of them.

'In Japan, they have an art, hana kotabana, where a specific flower has a specific meaning. This for example,' He pointed at a sunflower: 'means love and respect.'

The shock that slammed into Evan left him with two thoughts: In his sister's list sunflower stood for admiration and why the hell did Reed know the stuff.

The second thought was easy to answer since Reed's eyes kept going to Miko Kusanagi, who probably cared as much about flowers as any physicist but it was cute that Reed made the effort.

As for the first, apparently flowers had different meanings in different cultures which didn't surprise Lorne but he really hoped Reed would stop here before Reed ruined all of chances to ever go out with David.

David, however, appeared to be fascinated:

'Really, what do the other's mean?'

Reed looked through the flowers with a serious look on his face.

'Reed Richards, genius at work.' Cadman whispered to Evan, which earned her a hostile glare from Reed, who absolutely hated to be addressed by his full name, to the extent that even Sheppard and Dr. Weir called him Lieutenant Reed.

Reed grinned at David:

'Your flowers make so sense. Here, Ambrosia means pious.' Everyone laughed and Radek commented: 'What a way to charm someone, eh?'

Evan, never a violent nature, felt very much like hitting him.

'White Camellia means Waiting, how cute.' Perfection, it meant perfection. Mostly Evan hadn't wanted to use traditional flowers like forget-me-nots and red roses. That's what he got.

'But Freesia means childish or immature' Trust: 'And carnation means disappointed.'

Disappointed? This was unfair. His sister's list had said 'I'll never forget you' which he wouldn't. David was special otherwise he wouldn't be doing this.

'Maybe they were conflicted about their feelings.' Miko put in.

'Very much so.' Reed agreed amd pointed at a hydrangea: 'because this one means Pride.'

'Thank you for understanding' had been Evan's intention. David had never asked about the Genii. Instead he had went running on nights Evan had felt restless and kept him company during movie's that Evan liked.

'Gardenia – secret love.' Evan nearly sighed in relief; at least one flower had the same meaning.

'Red spider lily,' Reed whistled: 'Abandonment. Still no idea who it could be, David?'

David shook his head. Like everyone else he was hanging at Reed's lips, the musical plant completely forgotten.

'Yellow tulips – one-sided love' ('There's sunshine in your smile' Evan had liked that. It was really the only way to describe David's smile.

'Red tulips, hm, either charity or fame.' Evan cringed inwardly. In his list, red tulips meant a declaration of love. Red roses were just too boring and cliché.

'Sweat pea – goodbye and primrose – desperate.'

'No red roses.' Cadman commented: 'Just white and yellow ones.'

'White roses mean silence while yellow ones….'

'Jealousy.' Miko said at the same time as Evan answered:

'Friendship.'

Everyone stared at him. He cleared his throat:

'I don't know what they mean in Japan but in the western floriography yellow roses mean friendship.'

'How – ' David began but Cadman interrupted him.

'I think we can look at David's plant tomorrow.' Her voice was a bit too cheerful to be not forced:

'Anyone who wants to watch the latest Battlestar Galactica season with me?'

Affirmative noises came from everyone but Evan and David. As they left Miko offered Evan a timid smile, Radek squeezed his shoulder, and Reed gave him a discreet and Laura a rather enthusiastic thumbs up. Their acceptance and support was a relief to Evan. They were his and David's teammates after all.

'The flowers were from you?' David sounded stunned which Evan hoped was a good thing. At least he hadn't laughed or left in disgust.

'Yes and despite what Reed just said, they mean something else in my list.' David caught Evan's eyes and asked softly:

'Like?'

'Friendship.' He repeated and began to move slowly towards David: 'Admiration. Perfection.' Mere inches separated him from David, who hadn't moved at all. He looked at Evan in a way that Evan couldn't decipher but he was sure that it wasn't disgust or pity or rejection.

'Love.' A second passed and another one until David leaned in and kissed him.

It was like the mud fight with his team on M3667 or the night he went running with David under the open sky, like finishing a painting, like coming home to Atlantis after his imprisonment.

Evan felt open and happy and so much in love with David. He could feel David's sunshine smile against his lips and his warm hand on his neck.

'I…' David began as they broke apart but didn't continue.

'I love you.' Evan said. He didn't know if these were the words David was looking for but they made him smile.

'You're an incorrigible romantic.' By the way David said it, it sounded like the highest imaginable praise. So what if Atlantis would never let him live down the 'flower thing'? It got him what he wanted, didn't it?

David kissed him again and then , because the Pegasus galaxy knew no boundaries, his stomach grumbled loudly. David laughed:

'You missed dinner, didn't you?'

'Yeah.' Evan mumbled. Hell, this was so embarrassing, only David didn't seem to mind.

'Don't worry. I prefer your bed over my desk anyway.'

Evan had to kiss him again for that. And because he could all attempts of sabotage from the universe notwithstanding.


End file.
